Abstract
This paper presents as its central issue to introduce the discussion regarding the insufficiency of the western ethnocentric tradition Law and, consequently, the possibilities of counterpoint through an alternative and pluralistic legal culture. Then, as a response to that, to present a “decolonial turn” through the resignification of critical thinking and the emergence of legal pluralism, conceived as an analytical instrument able to contemplate complex and underlying phenomena. Such assertive allow for the presentation of the paper’s general object, that is, the seek for the characterization of the ambivalence of legal pluralism, either as a critical conception of law or as one of the epistemological variants of “critical theories” in law. Facing these premises, the critical-decolonial methodological proposition is applied, as well as the choice for the emancipatory aspect of community-participatory legal pluralism. The theoretical development and its problematization will comprise three moments: first, the narrative about the exhaustion of Eurocentric modernity and the necessary decolonial criticism, followed by the resignification of the “critical theories” in Law and, finally, the emergence of legal pluralism as an epistemic and methodological framework.
Keywords:
Legal pluralism; Critical theory; Legal criticism; Coloniality; Decoloniality